MHA has marked a RTI query seeking information on the Netaji snooping scandal as "secret" before dispatching it to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for a response.

MHA has marked a RTI query seeking information on the Netaji snooping scandal as "secret" before dispatching it to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for a response.

(This story originally appeared in on May 06, 2015)

NEW DELHI: In a puzzling move the ministry of home affairs has marked a RTI query seeking information on the Netaji snooping scandal as "secret" before dispatching it to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for a response. Equally bizarre was the fact that a copy of the communication marked "secret" was sent to the applicant Anuj Dhar.

Recently, declassified documents have revealed that the Indian government under late PM Jawaharlal Nehru spied on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's family members. Author Anuj Dhar, who has researched widely on Netaji, had in this context sought information related to the "surveillance" by IB under the RTI act.

Dhar had sought to know who had authorized the snooping on Netaji's family members and for what purpose. He has also sought information related to Netaji Research Bureau and the family members including Emilie Schenkl, Anita Pfaff, Sarat Bose, Suresh Bose, Amiya Nath Bose, Subrata Bose, Dwijindra Nath Bose, Sisir Bose, Krishna Bose and Prof Sugata Bose. He had also asked for communication between an IB official S B Shetty and K M Bourne from the UK's MI5 that indicated that India had shared intelligence on Bose with UK.

Dhar also claimed that the IB has four files in its possession including one on a journalist Hemandra Nath pandit who had wanted to examine the contents of two suitcases that belonged to Bose. The other files are reported to be of correspondence with MEA on Netaji Research Bureau, on the formation of the Shah Nawaz committee and the "exploitation of Netaji's name by political leaders" and sought copies.

The home ministry in its response initially said that the internal security division had no information on the matter. Dhar responded by arguing that the application was meant for the IB and should be responded by them following which the home ministry forwarded it to IB.

The move calls to question what is considered secret or classified in government. So far the government has even refused to make public even the manual according to which documents are classified.

Meanwhile, the home ministry on Tuesday denied any proposal to institute a probe into alleged spying on Bose's family members by the Jawaharlal Nehru government.

"A large number of files relating to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, including those relating to Khosla Commission and Mukherjee Commission, have been already declassified and sent to the National Archives of India. There are, however, some classified files with the Central government. There are also some files with the government of West Bengal relating to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose," MoS (home) Haribhai Chaudhary told Lok Sabha in a written reply.

He said no probe was proposed into the alleged spying of Netaji's kin.